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Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Making Science Work

PANEL Eric Lander Broad Institute and Biology, MIT Lisa Randall
Physics, Harvard University Charles Rosenberg History of Science,
Harvard University MODERATED BY Sheila Jasanoff Harvard Kennedy
School
Abstract:The discovery of new scientific knowledge and the application
of scientific knowledge, are sometimes presented as being very
different from each other. The fact is, however, that scientific
enquiry has always been concerned both with acquiring knowledge of
the natural world and of ourselves, and with using that knowledge
for the public good. But science should not be judged solely in a
utilitarian manner. Making science work for human benefit requires
making good decisions about what scientific research should be
supported and giving good scientific advice for public
policy. BioSir Paul Nurse is a British geneticist and cell biologist. He
became the 60th President of The Royal Society in December 2010. As
a geneticist, he studied the mechanisms which control the division
and shape of cells. In 2001, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for
Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of the key protein
regulators of the cell cycle. He has been Professor of Microbiology
at the University of Oxford, CEO of the Imperial Cancer Research
Fund and Cancer Research UK, and President of The Rockefeller
University, New York. Since 2011, he has been Director and CEO of
the Francis Crick Institute in London. Nurse has received the Royal
Society's Copley Medal (2005), the French Legion d’Honneur (2002),
and is a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts
and Sciences (2006). He was knighted in 1999 for services in
cancer research and cell biology.